Electronic menus (eMenus) are becoming more and more popular, especially as prices for electronic devices such as tablets, phablets, smart phones, and the like, continue to drop. Some restaurants thus have made moves to make their current physical menus available via custom applications (apps) that run on such electronic devices.
Unfortunately, however, the process of turning a physical “paper” or other menu into an electronic version can be complicated. For instance, although patrons typically tolerate a large amount of so-called “negative space” (e.g., large areas of unused or “wasted” space where a simple white or other oftentimes neutral color background appears behind text and/or images) when it comes to physical “paper” or other menus, electronic device users typically want to have more visually interesting “worlds” in which they can navigate and explore. Thus, a simple conversion from a paper menu to an electronic version, without more, can result in a graphical user interface (GUI) that is generally unsuitable for an electronic device because of the presence of too much “boring” negative space. As another example, although it is relatively easy to flip through a multi-page physical menu, navigating through a simple electronic analog (e.g., via scrolling or the like) could be quite tedious. Even where “electronic pages” can be “turned” by a user operating an electronic device, simply listing menu items through a series of text entries still leaves a large amount of wasted negative space and can create a fairly boring user experience. Thus, although the content may remain the same as between a conventional physical menu and an eMenu, it may be desirable to change the form of the information, e.g., to make it more appropriate for the device being used.
The process of generating an eMenu may also require special programming expertise that a restaurateur may not possess. Menu creation therefore may be difficult from a technical standpoint. Even in situations where restaurateurs are able to create eMenus, the process of laying out an eMenu for electronic device can be quite different from laying out a paper menu, and may involve a different skill set, e.g., as digital creation is different from paper layout presentation. It is fairly rare to find a person who has both technical programming skills and “an eye” for how graphics and/or other layout approaches can enhance how menus and/or menu items are presented. It thus will be appreciated that it would be desirable to help merge the content creation and formatting processes, e.g., to create an accessible, cohesive, and visually interesting eMenu.
Hardcoded eMenu solutions tend to be costly and promote stagnation of menus, e.g., as the customizations and updates generally carry further costs. In such cases, it oftentimes is difficult to highlight “featured” menu items that change on a daily, weekly, monthly, or other basis. It also can be difficult to remove entries that are no longer offered. Considering that a restaurateur could easily provide a “menu insert” to highlight featured menu items or “line through” or otherwise delete and reprint no longer offered items when working in the physical (e.g., paper) world, current eMenuing systems in some senses actually create new challenges. This is an interesting trend, as most people view technology as an expedient for pushing out new content quickly and easily. It thus will be appreciated that it would be desirable to provide approaches that help keep menus fresh and up to date, both in terms of their content and their look-and-feel. Certain exemplary embodiments address these and/or other issues, e.g., by providing techniques for more automated eMenu generation and/or management.
In certain example embodiments, a method of formatting an electronic menu to be output to a display of an electronic device is provided. There is defined a virtual grid-based layout including rows and columns that together define a plurality of regularly sized and shaped grid cells. Input identifying a plurality of items to be included in the electronic menu is received, with each said item having associated length and width dimensions corresponding to a number of grid cells, and with at least some of said items being flagged for inclusion in the electronic menu. Those items marked for inclusion in the electronic menu are automatically and programmatically arranged in the grid cells of the grid-based layout in a manner that minimizes the number of unused grid cells. A tag-based representation of the layout is stored to a file on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, following said arranging, with the tag-based representation of the layout corresponding to the formatted electronic menu. The file is made available to the electronic device in enabling the formatted electronic menu to be displayed on the display of the electronic device.
In certain example embodiments, a method of formatting an electronic menu to be output to a display of an electronic device is provided. There is defined a virtual grid-based layout including rows and columns that together define a plurality of regularly sized and shaped grid cells. Input from a predefined file corresponding to a physical menu is received, with the received input identifying a plurality of items to be included in the electronic menu, with each said item having associated length and width dimensions corresponding to a number of grid cells, and with at least some of said items being flagged for inclusion in the electronic menu. Using at least one processor of a computing system, those items marked for inclusion in the electronic menu are automatically and programmatically virtually arranged in the grid cells of the grid-based layout in a manner that minimizes the number of unused grid cells. A representation of the layout is stored to a file on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium of the computing system following said arranging, with the representation of the layout corresponding to the formatted electronic menu. The file is published so that the file is made available over a network interface of the computing device to the electronic device in enabling the formatted electronic menu to be displayed on the display of the electronic device.
In certain example embodiments, a computing device is provided. The computing device includes processing resources including at least one processor and a memory; a non-transitory computer readable storage medium; and an input channel configured to receive input identifying a plurality of items to be included in an electronic menu, each said item having associated length and width dimensions corresponding to a number of grid cells, at least some of said items being flagged for inclusion in the electronic menu. The processing resources are controllable to format the electronic menu using received input by executing instructions for at least: defining a virtual grid-based layout including rows and columns that together define a plurality of regularly sized and shaped grid cells; automatically and programmatically arranging those items marked for inclusion in the electronic menu in the grid cells of the grid-based layout in a manner that minimizes the number of unused grid cells; storing, to a file on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium, a tag-based representation of the layout, following said arranging, the tag-based representation of the layout corresponding to the formatted electronic menu; and making the file available to electronic devices in order to in turn enable the electronic devices to display and enable user interaction with the formatted electronic menu.
Similarly, in certain example embodiments, there is provided a program and/or a non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly storing instructions that, when executed, perform the above-described and/or other methods.
Similarly, in certain example embodiments, there is provided a system for use at a venue, with the system comprising a plurality of electronic devices distributed to patrons on behalf of the venue, and with each said electronic device being configured to display an electronic menu formatted in accordance with the method of claim 1.
According to certain example embodiments, the arranging comprises: adding to a source set a representation of each of the items identified by the received input; defining a state object having a predetermined number of rows and a number of columns equal to the number of columns in the grid-based layout that together define a plurality of state object cells, the state object cells having the same size and shape as the grid cells; (a) determining how many state object cells are unused in the first row of the state object; (b) removing elements from the source set and adding the removed elements to an insertion set while the total width of the elements added to the insertion set, as measured in cells, is less than the number of unused cells in the first row of the state object; (c) attempting to reorder the elements in the insertion set to fill the unused cells in the first row of the state object; (d) in response to a valid order being determined in (c), placing the reordered elements in the state object in this reordered order until all unused cells are filled and returning to the source set in their initial order any unused elements remaining in the insertion set; (e) in response to no valid order being determined in (c), searching for an appropriately-sized element from among the first predetermined number of elements in the source set; (f) in response to an appropriately-sized element being found in (e), removing the appropriately-sized element from the source set and adding it to the insertion set, reordering the elements in the insertion set to fill the unused cells in the first row of the state object, and placing the reordered elements in the state object in this reordered order until all unused cells are filled and returning to the source set in their initial order any unused elements remaining in the insertion set; and (g) if the source set is not empty, designating the row following the first row of the state object as the new first row of the state object and repeating (a)-(f), but otherwise defining the grid-based layout in accordance with the state object.
According to certain example embodiments, the arranging comprises: adding to a source set a representation of each of the items identified by the received input, the elements in the source set being ordered in accordance with a desired display order for the corresponding items; dividing the grid-based layout into a plurality of segments, each said segment including at least two rows and all columns in these rows that together define segment cells; (a) starting with the first segment, and starting at the beginning of the source set, identifying elements in the source set whose total cell space is less than or equal to the number of cells in the segment, and removing those identified elements from the source set; (b) selecting a segment layout from a pre-generated set of possible segment layouts for the identified elements, based on the combination of dimensions of the items associated with identified elements, as represented in cells; (c) laying out the items in the first segment in accordance with the selected segment layout; and (d) if the source set is not empty, designating the segment following the first segment as the new first segment and repeating (a)-(c), but otherwise defining the grid-based layout in accordance with the laid-out segments.
According to certain example embodiments, the arranging comprises: adding to a source set a representation of each of the items identified by the received input, the elements in the source set being ordered in accordance with a desired display order for the corresponding items; dividing the grid-based layout into a plurality of segments, each said segment including a number of rows that is at least one row greater than a maximum size of the elements, as expressed in cells, and all columns in these rows, so that the segment rows and segment columns collectively define segment cells; (a) starting with a first segment, determining how many segment cells are unused in its last row and, in response to a determination that there are no unused segment cells in its last row, adding the first segment to the grid-based layout and making the next segment the first segment; (b) starting with the first segment, and starting at the beginning of the source set, identifying elements in the source set whose total cell space is less than or equal to the number of unused cells in the first row of the first segment, and removing those identified elements from the source set; (c) attempting to first reorder and if necessary then rotate at least some of the identified elements to fill the unused cells in the first row of the first segment; (d) in response to a successful attempt in (c), placing the reordered and/or rotated elements in the first segment in this reordered and/or rotated order and returning to the source set in their initial order any unplaced identified elements; (e) in response to an unsuccessful attempt in (c), searching the source set for an element from among the first predetermined number of elements in the source set that is appropriately-sized and/or re-orientatable to be appropriately-sized to fill unused cells in the first row of the first segment; (f) in response to an appropriately-sized and/or re-orientatable element being found in (e), removing the appropriately-sized element from the source set and considering it one of the identified elements, attempting to first reorder and if necessary then rotate at least some of the identified elements to fill the unused cells in the first row of the first segment, placing the reordered and/or rotated elements in the first segment in this reordered and/or rotated order and returning to the source set in their initial order any unplaced identified elements; and (g) if the source set is not empty, designating the row following the first row of the first segment as the new first row of the first segment and repeating (a)-(f), but otherwise defining the grid-based layout in accordance with the first segment.
The exemplary embodiments, aspects, and advantages disclosed herein may be provided in any suitable combination or sub-combination to achieve yet further exemplary embodiments.